This is sad. Trail days is an annual gathering of hikers of the Appalachian Trail. Most of the people you find there are either current or former thru hikers. There are usually hundreds of hikers there and they hold a parade celebrating their accomplishment. That is what he plowed through.

HotWingAgenda:skinink: The elderly driver wasn't a bad driver because he supposedly suffered a medical emergency which caused the accident. Hope they're all okay. At least it's only injuries and not deaths.

If he had any reason to believe he might have a medical emergency while driving that could cause someone else injury or death, he is a bad driver.

That would make every driver a bad driver because any driver could potentially have a medical emergency (heart attack, stroke, seizure) at any time, with or without a prior history of them.

Rising_Zan_Samurai_Gunman:HotWingAgenda: skinink: The elderly driver wasn't a bad driver because he supposedly suffered a medical emergency which caused the accident. Hope they're all okay. At least it's only injuries and not deaths.

If he had any reason to believe he might have a medical emergency while driving that could cause someone else injury or death, he is a bad driver.

That would make every driver a bad driver because any driver could potentially have a medical emergency (heart attack, stroke, seizure) at any time, with or without a prior history of them.

I pharking hate elderly drivers. I've almost been in several accidents because they either a) hesitate and cause mass confusion or b) they are oblivious to anything around them like other cars or people.

I've almost been hit several times at my local grocer because they don't seem to give a fark about pedestrians. Once I actually had to jump back a few feet to avoid being creamed by a blue hair in a crusty Cadillac.

If an elderly person continues driving past a reasonable point as is caught/causes an accident (and I think the tests need to be strict as all fark. [If I can get a farking felony for blowing a .09 then you need to lose your license if you can't pass a simple test]) then I think they should be forced into a health care facility. Whatever possessions they have should be sold including their car and house/s and the money will be put towards their care

It's harsh, but I have seen too many asshole elderly drivers in my time. You can say "Well 16 year olds cause wrecks, too" but they will only get better as time goes on. The elderly only get worse AND their ability to judge their own skills gets worse as well.

Another attack on an innocent motorist, it was only an accident, those people shouldn't have been in the road, if they were real people they would have had cars, he 'didn't see them', the sun was in his eyes, he was distracted, why is he being punished for this, those people don't pay road usage fees, they should have been on the sidewalk anyway, he's been punished enough, 'no criminality suspected' (courtesy of the NYPD).

felching pen:That's it. I'm not going to any parades. Not in Virginia, not in New Orleans... they're just disaster magnets.

How about motorcades?

kittymewmewmew:Yup. Thought they were superficial as in fake, didn't realize that term existed for surface only injury.

I was picturing people faking to faint or fall over like some dash cam.

(English isn't my first language)

I can see this confusion. In English we might describe a person in those terms. "He is so superficial, he only thinks about his car. Such a fake. He's so shallow." Effectively saying the same thing a few times, we use the word interchangeably in its slang form to refer to someone we interpret not to have a deep character.

However in the case of an injury, it becomes more literal and the slang use is not implied. It just means scrapes, bumps, bruises etc.

skinink:The elderly driver wasn't a bad driver because he supposedly suffered a medical emergency which caused the accident. Hope they're all okay. At least it's only injuries and not deaths.

Being older than yoda and getting behind the wheel is irresponsible and dangerous for everyone except the fogies piloting their tank. Why do you think old people buy giant cars? It's because they know they're going to drive through store front at any moment and the bigger the car the safer...for them.

abhorrent1:skinink: The elderly driver wasn't a bad driver because he supposedly suffered a medical emergency which caused the accident. Hope they're all okay. At least it's only injuries and not deaths.

Being older than yoda and getting behind the wheel is irresponsible and dangerous for everyone except the fogies piloting their tank. Why do you think old people buy giant cars? It's because they know they're going to drive through store front at any moment and the bigger the car the safer...for them.

Older than Yoda? I'm going to start using that one and not give you any credit.

This just sucks so much. As someone who almost attempted the AT (plans were made, early food shipped off & then the Army decides that they want me 6 months earlier than they said..... gee, thanks), I can't imagine a worse group of people for someone to plow their car through. These people literally live by their feet during these months at they attempt to walk almost 2200 miles up (or down) the east coast. Even a small injury to their legs/feet could put them off of the trail long enough that they can't finish.

Fark the AARP & their continued attempts to block even the most minor retesting for driver's licenses past a certain age. At some point even the most bribe hungry politician will have to admit that there is a problem. If this was caused by a condition that he already knew about & shouldn't be driving with, I hope that criminal charges are filed & that he has to serve some time (even if is only weekends at the jail for a few months). The civil suits alone could (& quite probably should) cost him his house & everything he thought he was passing along to his family eventually. All because he was too proud/stubborn to hang up the keys & his family didn't have enough of a backbone to make him. Fark him.

/elderly parents//mom should/will need to stop in a year or so///she agrees & they already go nowhere after dark

Willie_The_Pimp:This is sad. Trail days is an annual gathering of hikers of the Appalachian Trail. Most of the people you find there are either current or former thru hikers. There are usually hundreds of hikers there and they hold a parade celebrating their accomplishment. That is what he plowed through.

This. Also it's really fun too! I walked in it on my hike in 2009 and again in 2010. The hikers and locals all arm up with water pistols and water balloons. The hikers walk through town and have a giant water fight with the spectators along the route. It's my favorite part of Trail Days.

Recoil Therapy:This just sucks so much. As someone who almost attempted the AT (plans were made, early food shipped off & then the Army decides that they want me 6 months earlier than they said..... gee, thanks), I can't imagine a worse group of people for someone to plow their car through. These people literally live by their feet during these months at they attempt to walk almost 2200 miles up (or down) the east coast. Even a small injury to their legs/feet could put them off of the trail long enough that they can't finish.

Fark the AARP & their continued attempts to block even the most minor retesting for driver's licenses past a certain age. At some point even the most bribe hungry politician will have to admit that there is a problem. If this was caused by a condition that he already knew about & shouldn't be driving with, I hope that criminal charges are filed & that he has to serve some time (even if is only weekends at the jail for a few months). The civil suits alone could (& quite probably should) cost him his house & everything he thought he was passing along to his family eventually. All because he was too proud/stubborn to hang up the keys & his family didn't have enough of a backbone to make him. Fark him.

/elderly parents//mom should/will need to stop in a year or so///she agrees & they already go nowhere after dark

My sympathies on the Army thing...I was in the Reserves back when they extended medic training by a few weeks, juuusst long enough to seriously screw with people's return to school for the fall semester.

/you don't really understand contract law until you've had to explain what they signed to 120 young people who know how to use automatic weapons//thanks, drill sergeants, for putting me in front of THAT formation

HotWingAgenda:I spent 24 years in Virginia and never even heard of this Damascus place. 50 to 60 people must've been half the town's population.

/hope everyone recovers as fully as possible, and the driver gets punished

Damascus is a cool little town about 30 minutes from Bristol. The AT comes through there, as well as the Virginia Creeper bike trail. The population may be 1000 at the most, but the place is packed during summer weekends with bikers, hikers, and such.

Damascus is a town right on the AppalachianTrail, 466 miles north of Springer Mountain, Ga.It's a redneck enclave where, in 2007, the chief of police was arrested for dealing meth.They like the hikers for the money they bring and the Trail Days festival attracts AT hikers from around the country as well as present aspiring thru hikers. Many hikers are already up into or entirely past Virginia now.

The driver was a geezer in a Cadillac with handicapped plates and there's a rumor that he has died, but that's not confirmed. He may have had a stroke or heart attack in his car. Hikers banded together and lifted the car off of at least one victim who was dragged under it.

valkyrie40205:This. Also it's really fun too! I walked in it on my hike in 2009 and again in 2010. The hikers and locals all arm up with water pistols and water balloons. The hikers walk through town and have a giant water fight with the spectators along the route. It's my favorite part of Trail Days.

Not any more.Last year, some geniuses decided to freeze some water balloons and an old lady got her picture window smashed out, so this year, NO water balloons and no water shot at uniformed people or "civilian" spectators.